Good News!

E-mailed Unwins and they are sorry but legislation does not permit them to send seeds to me! However, they will send them to an address in England so my long suffering son will now receive them in Kent…..and then have to post them to me. Hardly worth the financial effort!

But good news my lupins are germinated and looking good, so one out of two ain’t bad!…..but will they survive the clay….

Decided to extend a small bed dug earlier this year, this what I am up against! The fork was bouncing off and the rotivator as well so my husband took a pick axe to it, then the fork, then the rotivator 4 times! About 300 litres of compost and a sack of grit and maybe….just maybe I can plant shrubs this Autumn! Funnily enough things do grow, I am continually amazed as I have never had such awful clay soil anywhere before.

My veg are doing very well with good crops of shallots (nearly run out of pop socks to store them in), leeks, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, beetroot,cabbage and courgettes. On the way, swede and parsnips both like gold dust in my part of France and used as currency with other expats for figs and walnuts (which I don’t have).

Comments

glad all your veg is doing well Troddles despite your bad soil,your hubby did a good job there,i have been wondering how to store my garlic & onions..now i know i am on the hunt for some nylons or tights lol...

Sounds like you've got as much clay as we've got rocks! Four years and we're still digging out boulders and builders' rubble! Another tip for storage of onions is the net bags you can buy potatoes or oranges in. They sometimes have a plastic advertising sheet on the bag, but these are easily removed. Lovely shallots in your photo - I think I shall try growing them next year.

It seems we all have our problems! I am now working on a border..unfortunately we planted a few things against the fence so it will be difficult to use the rotivator. I am doggedly trying to penetrate about 1 metre per day, temperature today around 31C...help!